PERCEPTIONS OF EMPLOYERS ABOUT HIV/AIDS IN MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES EMPLOYING WOMEN WORKERS: A CASE STUDY OF HARARE
ABSTRACT: HIV/AIDS has a negative impact on economic activity. The study seeks to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS on the Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sector by assessing the perceptions of employers and employees. The study focuses on the MSE sector, which employs a majority of women. Little research has been done on this area and it is expected that the findings of the study will prove useful to stakeholders.
The service industry was selected for the study because it employs a majority of women. About 68 percent of the respondents are women. Within the industry, 30 enterprises comprising salons, cafés and travel agencies were selected. An interview guide was used to collect data from employers and employees on perceptions on HIV/AIDS in their workplaces, and information on awareness and prevention methods.
The study found that enterprises employing women were perceived to have a relatively low incidence of HIV/AIDS. Men were perceived to be at a higher risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS because of their promiscuous behaviour. However, it was felt that HIV/AIDS had affected productivity in these enterprises mainly through absenteeism and death. It was also found that both employers and employees in these enterprises had a high level of awareness of HIV/AIDS. However, respondents felt that cultural barriers made it difficult for women to protect themselves from HIV. All enterprises had some prevention methods in place. However, it was found that enterprises characterised by a high level of contact between employees and clients had a higher use of prevention methods.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is considered the biggest threat to the socio-economic development of many sub-Saharan African countries. The complexities of the challenges presented by the pandemic are far greater than what anyone could have imagined when the first cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the turn of the millennium, UNAIDS estimated that 36.1 million adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS 2000). Furthermore, over 18 million people are estimated to have died from the disease.
One of the most worrying attributes of this scourge is that it is highly prevalent amongst the most economically active part of the population, which is 15-60 years of age. The ILO (2001) and Jackson (1992) state that most of those who die of AIDS are adults in the prime of their productive years. The high level of infection among adults poses a threat not only to the health of any nation but also to the productivity of the factories, farms, plantations, mines and other enterprises that constitute the productive sector of the economy. The epidemic also threatens any country’s financial, administrative and social infrastructures. Thus, HIV/AIDS is a threat to the livelihoods of millions of people and to the welfare of their families, regardless of whether or not they happen to be HIV-positive.
The devastating effects of HIV/AIDS are felt by societies at both the macro and micro levels. At the micro level, households lose breadwinners, spend their savings on prohibitively priced treatments, and undergo immense emotional and psychological trauma during the sickness and after the death of a family member. At the national level, already strained health budgets are stretched further and the labour force and national output are reduced in quantity and quality.
The incidence of HIV/AIDS is far greater in sub-Saharan Africa than any other region in the world. Of the estimated 36.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world, 25.3 million of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. The proportion will continue to rise in the region, where poverty, poor health systems and limited resources for prevention and care fuel the spread of the virus. In Zimbabwe, 34 percent of the population aged 15-49 is estimated to be living with HIV (National AIDS Council 2002). This figure, which reflects prevalence amongst the most productive age group, is the second highest in the world after Botswana, which has a prevalence rate of 36 percent (ibid.). Namibia has a prevalence rate of 19.5 percent in adults aged from 15-49 (Hopolang 2001). MAP (2000) estimates that by 2003, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe will be experiencing negative population growth:0.1 to -0.3 percent from the 1.1 to 2.3 percent it would have been without AIDS.
The ILO (2001) projects the population of Zimbabwe in 2020 to be 20 percent smaller than it would have been without AIDS. Similarly, in Botswana in 2020, the familiar population pyramid is expected to be replaced by a “population chimney”. This is the first time that negative population growth has been projected for developing countries. It is due to high levels of HIV prevalence in these countries coupled with relatively low fertility. In other countries, population will still grow despite high levels of mortality, due to very high levels of fertility.
The high rate of HIV infection is clearly a threat to the size, structure and output of the Zimbabwean labour force in both the short and long terms. Ray and Williams (1993) concur that the working age is the most affected by the pandemic in Zimbabwe and its effects are being felt more acutely. Reasons given for the rapid spread of the pandemic are mainly the highly developed transport infrastructure, the high mobility of the population and the country’s high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) (ibid).
In Africa, women are harder hit by the pandemic than men (MAP 2000). About 55 percent of all adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. The difference between men and women is pronounced in those who are younger than 25 years. A population-based survey in Kisumu, Kenya, showed HIV rates in 15 and 16-year old girls of 8 and 18 percent, respectively, while no infections were documented in boys of the same age. According to UNAIDS (1999), women are about four times more vulnerable than men to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Women may have higher HIV prevalence than men because they are more exposed to infected partners and/or because they are at a higher risk of acquiring HIV infection from an infected partner.
Furthermore, women occupy a weaker position in sexual relationships and also a lower economic and social status relative to men. They are unable to negotiate sex relations as effectively as men do. Generally, women earn lower incomes within the informal sector (USAID 1998). As such, they are less able to afford the cost of treatment and therefore are unlikely to cope with even the less serious symptoms of HIV infection. In addition, their weak financial standing makes them susceptible to being heavily dependant on men who may demand sexual favours in return for providing them with support in cash or kind, which increases their risk of infection. Therefore, MSEs employing women stand a high chance of having their operations disrupted or even closed.
The Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sector is becoming an increasingly important part of the Zimbabwean economy. Between 1991 and 1998 total employment in manufacturing, commercial and service MSEs grew by 22 percent (USAID 1998). Taken together, these three sectors employed about 34 percent of the total labour force in 1998, and when agricultural and mining MSEs are included, this proportion stood at 78 percent (ibid). Although no figures are available for the current period, the numerous lay-offs that have taken place in the recent past, the contraction of the formal sector and the large number of school leavers would suggest that the MSE sector has grown further.
It is also essential to point out that the majority of people working in the MSE sector are women. In 1998, one or more women owned 58 percent of all MSEs. This reflects the fact that women face stronger barriers in entering the formal sector relative to men and are therefore more likely to take up employment in the MSE sector. However, although women own many businesses in this sector, there has been a sharp decline in the number of women owned businesses in the recent past. The total number of women-owned businesses fell by 3.8 percent per year between 1991 and 1998 (ibid.). It is interesting to note that ‘personal’ reasons featured more significantly than financial constraints (or any other factors) as a reason for closure between 1994 and 1997. One could argue that HIV/AIDS may be included in what is termed ‘personal’ by MSE sector operators.
The study seeks to look at perceptions on HIV/AIDS of employers and employees in the informal sector. Considering the sensitivity of the subject, it is easier to get perceptions rather than hard facts from interviewees.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The MSE sector provides employment for a large proportion of the Zimbabwean economically active population. Women form most of the labour force in this sector, and they are involved as employers and employees.
The effects of HIV/AIDS on the MSE sector are largely unknown. What is known based on statistics is that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is severely affecting the economically active population group. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of how the pandemic is affecting the MSE sector. It is particularly important to assess how the pandemic affects MSEs employing women, given that they constitute the majority of the labour force in this sector.
Unlike other diseases that can be treated, the intermediate and end results of HIV/AIDS are permanent disability and death. This has major implications for the continued survival of the MSE sector and those who derive their livelihood from it. The disability and death of women entrepreneurs in the MSE sector has far reaching effects due to the importance of their activities in this sector and the multiple roles they occupy in society.
Unfortunately for women, the disadvantaged social and economic positions they occupy place them at a high risk of HIV/AIDS infection. Usually women have little or no say concerning their sexual relations. As a result, women are at risk of engaging in sex with infected partners. MAP (2000) carried out a study in Mutasa, Zimbabwe and found out that there was a higher prevalence of HIV amongst women than men. Women entrepreneurs may also be faced with these socio-economic constraints, especially if they do not generate enough income to make themselves financially independent.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
This study aims at assessing perceptions on how HIV/AIDS affects women working in Zimbabwe’s MSEs. Specifically, it seeks to:
• Assess perceptions of how HIV/AIDS affects MSEs employing women;
• Assess the level of awareness on HIV/AIDS and its ways of transmission; and
• Assess to what extent prevention methods are adopted by those employed in the MSEs.
The above objectives will be pursued based on the following research questions:
• How is HIV/AIDS perceived to affect MSEs employing women?
• What is the level of awareness on HIV/AIDS in MSEs employing women?
• To what extent are prevention methods being used by those employed in the MSEs?
1.4 Importance of the Study
In as much as more work needs to be done to understand how HIV/AIDS affects all people working in MSEs, there is an urgency to understand how women in particular are being affected by the disease. For there to be a relevant response from stakeholders to the problem of HIV/AIDS in MSEs, a clear understanding of how the pandemic is affecting women is crucial. Thus, it is expected that this study will add to the body of literature on the impact of HIV/AIDS on MSEs and fill part of the gap on how HIV/AIDS affects MSEs employing women.
Measures aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS have evolved over time. The ILO has realised that it is more effective to have specific measures that focus on men and women separately since women are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Women-controlled barriers to HIV/AIDS are considered an integral part of the prevention process; nevertheless, measures targeted at women in the work area should be developed. The study can help generate ideas on how to develop such measures. It is hoped that the study can shed some light on how such measures can be developed and incorporated in the broader initiative aimed at mitigating the effects of HIV/AIDS in the work area.
1.5 Definition of Concepts
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
HIV is an abbreviation for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV is not AIDS; it is spread through specific body fluids, blood, semen, vaginal fluids and sometimes through the mother’s milk to her baby. Even if they do not show symptoms, people who are HIV positive are infectious. One of the problems associated with the spread of HIV is that many people who are HIV positive are unaware that they are. HIV has a long incubation period and infected people may have many years of normal productive life, although they can infect others during this period (Loewenson 1998).
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
AIDS is an abbreviation for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, i.e.,
Acquired: obtained from some outside source.
Immune: the body’s ability to fight illness.
Deficiency: not enough ability to fight illness.
Syndrome: set of symptoms of not just one kind of illness - can be several illnesses.
AIDS is an illness that arises out of weaknesses of the immune system. Any illness including tuberculosis, cancer, pneumonia, great weight loss due to constantly upset stomach - that enters when one’s body is very weak due to HIV, is called AIDS. These illnesses occur due to destruction of the immune system (Loewenson 1998). Women are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because they have a larger mucosal surface exposed during sexual intercourse and also semen has a far higher concentration of HIV than vaginal fluid (UNIFEM SARO Report 2001). Since people with HIV appear healthy and those with AIDS have detectable medical illnesses, it is important to differentiate between these two states.
Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs)
While there is no universal definition of micro and small enterprises, there is some agreement as to their general characteristics in developing countries. They are broadly of very small operation, relatively low level of technology and usually managed by the owner. A further description of these enterprises is related to their considerably low level of productivity and income, and their strong tendency to operate in the informal sector. The size of an enterprise may be defined according to various criteria, including: the number of workers, the volume of output or sales, the value of assets or the use of energy. The criterion of the number of workers is the one which is widely used because of its apparent simplicity and because data on other criteria is generally lacking. For operational purposes, it is often agreed that MSEs employ 5 to 50 workers. These definitions may be adapted to specific situations prevailing in various countries.
